Music reviews and interviews on all things pop and rock as well as everything in between

The Singles Bar #7

Dua Lipa today confirms that the next single from her acclaimed debut album will be IDGAF. Accompanying the single is an official video directed by Henry Scholfield, who previously directed Dua’s iconic video for 3x Platinum single New Rules. IDGAF is available now to buy and stream on all platforms here!

Already a fan-favourite and sitting at over 40 million streams on Spotify, IDGAF is the sixth single taken from Dua’s album. The video sees Dua’s softer side in a battle with a cold, empowered alter ego. The creative concept was designed by Mosaert (Paul Van Haver AKA Stromae and Luc Junior Tam) in collaboration with director Henry Scholfield who had all previously worked together on Stromae’s videos.

Global superstar Diplounveils a new video for Get It Right featuring MØ today. Watch the video, directed by Brantley Gutierrez and with choreography from longtime collaborator Sara Bivens and Calvit Hodge, here.

“Get It Right was one of those songs that was written within a very short amount of time—where you hear the beat, you feel inspired, you sing the melodies and the lyrics write themselves because they were already there,” says MØ of the track. “Good sounds inspire you to write more passionately about subjects that are close to your heart, and Wes’ sounds tend to do that to me. We’ve collaborated a lot of times over the past five years and working with him has helped me develop as a songwriter and shape my voice. I’m very thankful for our artistic journey together.

“He came up with this idea of a full song of synchronized choreography and I just loved that idea—even though I was very nervous to learn all of those steps! But it all worked out and it was one of the most fun video shoots I have ever been on!”

The track is the latest in a string of collaborations between Diplo and MØ, dating back to the latter’s 2013 debut EP Bikini Daze. MØ later appeared on Major Lazer’s global smash hits Lean On and Cold Water.

Turnstilehas shared Moon, the third new track to be released from their anticipated new LP, TIME & SPACE. Moon, which sees bassist Franz Lyons delivering a soulful performance with additional vocals from Sheer Mag’s Tina Halladay.

Recorded with producer Will Yip at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA, TIME & SPACE marks Turnstile’s Roadrunner Records debut and follows their 2015 breakthrough, NONSTOP FEELING. TIME & SPACE has already started amassing numerous Most Anticipated of 2018 honors making Turnstile one of the Alternative Artists to Watch in 2018.

Norway’s beloved DATAROCKfirst won the hearts of Australian audiences back in 2005 with their 80’s inspired, indie-electo hit Computer Camp Love. The song came in at number 13 in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of that year and the band proceeded to hit our shores sporting their iconic red tracksuits, playing all the major Australian festivals including Meridith Music Festival, Groovin The Moo and Falls Festival. In the years since, DATAROCK continued their momentum in Australia and internationally by performing on high profile TV programs such as Jimmy Kimmel and appearing on major festival lineups including Coachella and Lollapalooza. The band became loved for their cross-over party music and international indie bangers like Fa Fa Fa.

2018 will see DATAROCK release their heavily anticipated third studio album FACE THE BRUTALITY on February 23rd and in keeping with the bands continued romanticism with Australia they’ll be offering us the first taste of the record with their laid back summer groove, Ruffle Shuffle.

Melbourne’s mystic psychedelic rocker Moonloveris thrilled to release his new single Queen of Sheba today, in line with Capricorn’s New Moon. Queen of Sheba follows last year’s singles The Ooiee and Thou Shall Be Free, and is taken from his forthcoming debut album Thou Shall Be Free due out Friday March 2 through Our Golden Friend / Island Records.

Queen of Sheba builds on Moonlover’s charming voice and the song’s luring bass runs with playful synth layers and colorful overlays. Laden with sonic surprises, every listen brings something new to the experience, from the extraterrestrial-esque soundFX to trickling overdubs of colourful picking guitar and eastern arpeggios.

With the release of her second album Historian heading our way on the 2nd March via Matador / Remote Control Records, Lucy Dacus gives us another taste of what’s to come with a video for the anthemic and horn-accented upbeat new single Addictions. Watch the video below.

Directed by Dacus herself, the video is a love letter of sorts to her native Richmond, VA, presented in its full fall glory. Our nameless protagonist walks, explores, and hitchhikes through Richmond, seeing the city through a picture frame that presents the world in black and white to those who look through it, while contemplating her past. The visual trick suggests a separation of reality & the present (coloured world) and fantasy & the past (black and white), tying in the song’s theme of addictions in all their toxic forms — be it substances, relationship baggage, or old habits — and how they can be difficult to break.

Golden is Kylie Minogue’s first studio album in four years, and her fourteenth studio album in a record breaking career. The album was mainly recorded in Nashville, which was a first for Kylie, a fact which couldn’t help but inform the sound – albeit in Kylie’s superlative pop style.

The album opens with lead single Dancing, which sets the tone for what is to come on the album. Kylie says: “You’ve got the lyrical edge, that country feel, mixed with some sampling of the voice and electronic elements, so it does what it says on the label. And I love that it’s called ‘Dancing’, it’s immediately accessible and seemingly so obvious, but there’s depth within the song.”

UNFD is thrilled to announce the signing of Melbourne five-piece Thornhill. To celebrate, the band has dropped brand new single Reptile, lifted from their forthcoming EP, Butterfly, set for release on February 16.

Much like the life of a butterfly, Thornhill have experienced a complete metamorphosis in their short time together. Thornhill’s second EP sees the Melbourne five-piece emerge from the chrysalis with six new songs that mark the next phase of their alternative metalcore evolution.

To kick off the new year and their upcoming biggest Australian tour to date (which is selling out FAST), followed by a massive North American run of shows, Cub Sport give you the video for new single Good Guys Go.

The track is about an unfortunately common theme; being in a relationship where you’re doing everything you can to keep the other person up and make sure they’re happy, but that attention and love isn’t being reciprocated.

Inspired by hearing similar situations told to him by friends over and over, lead singer Tim Nelson explained to The Fader; “I wrote Good Guys Go about an imbalanced relationship where emotional labour was going unrecognised. I saw the toll this cycle took, where one person was continually working so much harder than the other to keep the relationship afloat. I hope this song offers some sort of comfort to people who have felt the same.”

Hailing from Orange County, California, Super Whatevr have released a new song Telelelevisionalong with a visual video for the track. It is the fourth single off their upcoming full-length debut Never Nothing, out January 19th via Hopeless Records

The song takes on complicated themes about ones relationship with their inner-self, a common thread throughout Never Nothing. “It’s about fighting what seemed to be a knee-jerk urge to take my life,” McKee said. “Other people could tell me the type of person that I was but I wouldn’t hear it and certainly didn’t believe it.”

Canterbury, Kent’s Moose Bloodhave premiered their new single It’s Too Much, taken from the band’s highly anticipated third full-length album I Don’t Think I Can Do This Anymore, which will be released on March 9, via Hopeless Records.

“There’s almost a circularity to this album when placed next to our first two,” notes lead guitarist Mark Osborne. “The first is full of songs written by enthusiastic, excited kids who just wanted to get their music out there. ‘Blush’ was more about struggling with some of what came along with that change of lifestyle and ‘I Don’t Think I Can Do This Anymore’ is really us trying to work through some of what has happened in our lives as a result of doing this band full time. We’ve put everything into this album. We always write like it might be the last album that we ever get to make and we’ve challenged ourselves in every way we could on these songs.”

Melbourne’s DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE have today premiered the second single Resistancefrom their forthcoming new album Abomination, and announced a stacked lineup for their album preview show going down at The Tote on Friday February 2nd. Abomination will be released on Feb 16 via Dero Arcade.

Divide and Dissolve – Takiaya Reed (saxophone, guitar, live effects) and Sylvie Nehill (drums, live effects) – are a heavy two-piece who create music designed to decolonise, dismantle white supremacy and empower people of colour & Indigenous people the world over. Resistance is an instrumental, atmospheric piece brimming with tension and beauty. On their new single, the band explain, “Our existence represents their failure in their attempt to wipe us from our homelands. Every breathe and step we take absolutely dismantles their frivolous efforts to extinguish Indigenous Sovereignty.”

Colourful and unique, LA. Faithfull has today announced her new single Heart Back, a gut-wrenching pop smash with a clear, vulnerable message, available now. This exciting newcomer has also released a raw, expressive video that conveys the truth behind the song through dance and visuals, and this effective clip has already racked up almost 60,000 plays on Facebook since its release.

Heart Back is raw, in every sense of the word. Produced by the legends at M Squared Productions (NUSSY, Imogen Brough), and evocative of Amy Shark’s heavy, hip-hop inspired beats, Heart Back is some seriously fresh pop from LA. Faithfull, otherwise known as Lisa Anne Faithfull. The chorus soars, with sharp, synth-laden production that nods towards Lorde’s renowned debut LP Pure Heroine, and Faithfull’s voice is the soft, reassuring comfort throughout.

The song was inspired by a difficult time in her life, as she reflects, “Heart Back is about the moment when you fall apart and realise that maybe no one will ever be able to put back together those tiny pieces of your heart that feel like they are lost when tragedy strikes. I actually wrote the lyrics the night I found out my dad had prostate cancer…I was going through the motions of looking at my dad’s face when he had to tell us, and watching my mum’s reaction of pure fear – and then feeling that it will never be the same again…even when you have good days, you’re always worried about the next bit of bad news.”

Hachikuhave today shared a new song Murray’s Lullaby via Milk! Records / Remote Control Records, and announced a show in celebration of its launch on 2 March at The John Curtin Hotel, Melbourne.

Hachiku is the brainchild of 23 year old German songwriter and producer Anika Ostendorf, who records her home-made dream pop from whichever bedroom she is currently inhabiting.

Murray’s Lullaby was written and recorded in regional Queensland while Ostendorf was completing 3 months of farm work – a requirement for her Australian visa. While it was a busy creative time, it was a difficult one personally. The song deals with the isolation of a long-distance relationship”, Ostendorf explains, “longing to be close to that person while living in the fear that you’ll forget the memories you made together.

Footscray’s favourite self-taught, self-produced, garage-pop multi-instrumentalist wunderkind has returned with a brand new song, video, album and residency – all of it! Jarrow(aka Dan Oke)’s bonkers new track Emojiis the first off his brand-new album Expensive Hugs due Friday 16 March and available now for pre-order via Barely Dressed / Remote Control Records.

Earnest acoustic rock ballads are not meant to feature vocoder drenched vocals. And they’re not meant to wobble increasingly out of shape as the song reaches its climax. Like Blind Melon attempting to reproduce 808’s and Heartbreaks, Emoji breaks all the rules and it’s f*cking fantastic because of it.

As Dan (Jarrow) explains, “Entering the digital age, we find ourselves using emojis and symbols as a shield or a placeholder for representing our feelings. So for the video, we focused on somebody using an emoji head as a mask in their everyday life (inspired by the movie Frank); giving character to their immediate surroundings whilst simultaneously hiding their actual emotions”. The resulting video (directed by Haiden Nettle) is a colourful and woozy journey that follows the trials and tribulations of a living and breathing emoji.